Glorious Parade of Sail as The Tall Ships’ Races fleet leaves Liverpool
Photo: Cuauhtemoc passes the Royal Liver Building.
The Tall Ships’ Races fleet left Liverpool today in a glorious Parade of Sail with the sun shining and the crowds out in their hundreds of thousands. Stavros S Niarchos led the parade passing Pluckington Bank Buoy at 1400 hrs followed by a group of other vessels. Each subsequent group of ships followed at five minute intervals.
The Yakevlovs aerobatic display team flew overhead as the Parade got going, with a fire tug spraying water for added effect. With the wind coming from a northerly direction, the ships were unable to display much sail, but a few of them did put up some stay sails, notably the Mexican ship Cuauhtemoc. Members of the Pogoria crew manned the yards and waved at the crowds who cheered and waved back.
Over 1 million people are estimated to have visited Liverpool over the past four days to visit the ships and witness the Parade of Sail. The organisation of the event went as smoothly as it was possible given the challenging conditions of having a split fleet. Public transport worked well, with shuttle buses constantly on the go to move people from the Albert Dock site to the Wellington Dock.
The Liaison Officer system worked extremely well with a couple of notable problem solving highlights. When Jens Krogh broke her bowsprit on arrival a 30 ft piece of wood was found to replace it, shipped in and replaced in time for the vessel to take part in the Race. Meanwhile an SOS was received from the Brazilian Embassy about a washing machine problem on Cisne Branco. A part was quickly sourced and replaced so the ship could continue to launder their white uniforms! All in a day’s work for the Liaison system.
The fleet are now en route to the north coast of Northern Ireland where the race start will take place at 1500 hours local time on Wednesday 23 July. From there the fleet will race around the top of Scotland and then across the North Sea to Maløy in Norway where they are due to arrive on 1 August.
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